Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Okay guys, this is going to be the quickest review I've ever written, since school already has me far more stressed than I was last semester and it's been nearly a month since I read Ethan Frome for the Classics Challenge 24-hour readalong, and I just want to get it over with. Also, this is the 5th book I've completed for the Classics Club challenge - just 45 books and 4.5 years to go!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Happy Harry Potter Day, everybody! This week we're starting Chamber of Secrets, which I normally think of as my least favorite book of the series, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the first half of it on its own. I know that the rather underwhelming adventure is coming, but reading it in parts really let me enjoy this first half. Even though it's often kind of cheesy, it also has some parts I really love, like Dobby and the Burrow. Like in Sorcerer's Stone, Rowling does a great job of setting things up, even if the ending flags a bit.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I'm back from chilly, chilly Wisconsin! Only to find that New Jersey got rather cold in my absence. But it was nice to sleep in my own bed! Faithful Place is another one of those books I completed last year and have only now gotten around to reviewing on the blog, though I think that I'm finally caught up through 2012 so that's a win! For the uninitiated, Faithful Place is the third book in Dublin Murder Squad series so if you missed them, click the links for my review of In the Woods (the first book) and The Likeness (the second book).

Friday, January 18, 2013

Happy Harry Potter Day! It is here again! Except this time it's colder because I'm writing today from chilly Wisconsin, where I'm visiting my in-laws for the weekend. I finished Sorcerer's Stone the other day and have already made a sizeable dent in Chamber of Secrets, so I can already tell that I'm going to have to be careful to not got too far ahead of myself in this readalong.

Just a head's up: I love this book and this series, but the second half of Sorcerer's Stone is just SO FULL of things to mock that that's pretty much all I'll be doing this post. I still love it. Deal.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Guess what, everybody! My niece was born on Sunday! Her name is Ella and she is adorable and I love her so much. It's kind of amazing - I now have four nieces and one nephew and it never gets any less exciting. There's still that furious race to the hospital, the plotting to get as much baby-holding time as possible, and even the willingness to help with those first dirty diapers. She wasn't supposed to be born until this coming Friday, when I'll be out of town (which I was very sad about), but I think that she wanted to come early so that she could see her Auntie on the day she was born. I mean, can you blame her? I already have plans of buying her Ella Enchanted when she's older (assuming that I approve, I've never actually read it). Isn't she a cutie though? That first day she just slept and slept.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Happy Harry Potter Day! Which is what I have officially dubbed every Friday from now through the end of time June, maybe. Hello, fellow Harry Potter Readalongers and people who clearly wish they were Harry Potter readalongers! The readalong is truly upon us now! For this week, we read the first half of Sorcerer's Stone, up through "The Midnight Duel," better known as "All the Ways in Which Draco Malfoy is a Terrible Person." But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday, January 7, 2013

I've been a little back-logged on reviews - I have some written for books I read in 2012 but haven't posted yet, and others I haven't even written. So I'm playing catch up in January. I read Surfacing at the end of December. It was the third book I read by Margaret Atwood last year, and my third reminder of why she's so good. I'm not sure how I haven't read her entire back-list yet, but I definitely intend to do so eventually.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

So the end has come came an hour ago, my friends. It was fun while I was conscious. To be frank, for me the 24-hour readathon was more of an intermittent 15-hour readathon, which came as no surprise to me, who can't even stay up to complete school assignments due first thing the next day. I need my sleep. My day looked a little like this:

Saturday, January 5, 2013

I'm nearly 8.5 hours through The Classics Club's first ever readathon. I've probably spent no more than 4 hours actually reading - the rest of my time has been devoted to yoga, showering, a spa visit, and doing dishes - and I'm still going strong. So far, I've read about 10 pages of A Feast for Crows and listened to about 30 minutes of my current audiobook Broken Harbor, neither of which is on my Classics Club list. I did just complete Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton though, so that's an accomplishment. It's nice and short - only 130 pages - so I was able to get through it easily. I'll review it on the blog at a later time; for now - it was okay. Not my favorite, by I was able to get through it easily and was moved, though conflicted in my feelings about Ethan.

Onwards! I think I'd like to stick with another short novel that I could conceivably finish today so I think I'll go with Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf. She's not always the easiest writer to get through, but it's only 176 pages, so that should balance out. It's been far too long since I've read anything by her. I think that should be remedied, don't you?

Good morning, fellow readers! It is Saturday and that means that it's time for The Classics Club Readathon, AKA my first readathon ever, AKA oh my goodness are these people crazy, AKA SUCH FUN. The moderators over at The Classics Club are starting off festivities with a questionnaire! What fun! (I feel like I sound very sarcastic and mocking, but that is not the case. I'm just very sleepy and my tea isn't ready yet.)

Friday, January 4, 2013

Hi all you crazy adult Harry Potter fans/obsessives/people who thought this Harry Potter readalong might be fun. Welcome to my intro post! I'm Jennifer, a graduate student studying social work in NJ (but I'm moving soonish). I like to read and pretend to write and cook/bake and eat and do yoga. Also, I'm a vegetarian. I've been blogging since May 2010, right after I graduated from undergrad. I'm usually fairly snobbish when it comes to books, but Harry is my big exception. I've read and listened to the Harry Potter series about a trillion times because I'm cool like that.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

I was all sad that I finished In the Woods, the first novel in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, so fast and that I had no more credits available on Audible, but then my sister-in-law got me the rest of the series with some extra credits she had lying around and isn't she the best?! I actually listened to this back in December but was a little delayed in posting this review and some others as well. I think I'll be spending January playing catchup. In the meantime...murder in Dublin! What fun!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Years, my fellow bloggers! I hope you had a fun evening and first day of the year. I rang the new year in in a nearly empty pool hall, which was actually pretty fun, and fortunately the manager didn't insist on playing the live coverage of nothing for more than the five minutes leading up to midnight, so that was good. I don't really get the whole ball dropping thing. It's rather anticlimactic.